The Final Round closes in:
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Here we are, shortlisted writers! Down to the final ten, and ready to spend 48 hours crafting an amazing* story. This round, our writers will be combining tropes from two genres to make a blended-genre story. A few tips and pointers about this round:
- Look. Up. Your. Genres.
- Even if you know one of the genres well, even if your name is actually Ngaio Marsh and we assigned you “mystery,” it’s good to think about not only what you believe is in the genre but what your judges might be expecting to see. Both genres need to be easily identifiable, so think about which elements of the two will work together and which will not.
- Don’t go offroading with your genres. Sure, there are noir stories that don’t incorporate crime, femme fatales, or hardboiled main characters… but this isn’t the time to be trying to write one. Stick to the main tropes for your assigned genres and let the interplay between the two provide the sense of freshness and innovation you’re looking for to show off your creativity.
- There are no character, plot or setting restrictions, beyond what is necessary to demonstrate each genre.
Now that that’s cleared up, let’s get to the genre assignments:
(Remember: you don’t need a group number on your title page, because there’s only one group! Just put Final Round)
GENRES: Epistolary, Suspense
Epistolary: Although you’ll find an expanded definition of “epistolary” in Wikipedia now, we’re looking for a traditional epistolary work: “stories constructed as a series of letters exchanged between characters.” Well. Not that traditional. “Letters” could mean letters, texts, emails, or any other form of communication meant to go from one person to another one or several people, but not blog posts, newspaper articles, transcripts, or forms of communication posted by one person publicly for a general audience. The correspondence could be one-sided or an exchange, although it should not be one long narrative letter (that’s just a first-person story with a Dear and a Love tacked on at the ends). And it can be “to whoever finds this” so long as it’s in a physical medium.
Suspense: Let’s clarify one thing up front: Suspense is not horror, although a lot of horror stories incorporate elements of suspense. But so do mysteries, thrillers, dramas, and The Monster At The End of This Book. Suspense doesn’t live in the jump-scare, it’s in the tension between what the reader anticipates and what the character does in the absence of that anticipation. In suspense, anxiety developed in the text keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, hooked on finding out what will happen next. Often the reader expects something to happen and believes they have a superior perspective (knowing something bad is going to happen to the main character, which the character is yet unaware of), but can’t help their fascination with the character’s upcoming actions. They want to see if they’re right…or the character is… or if both are wrong. Here’s an article unpacking the elements of suspense that we think is pretty good.
Wait, wait, there’s more!
Don’t post your story anywhere on the Internet until after our judges are done and you get your feedback! But if you want to talk up the competition or live-tweet your writing process, use the hashtag #YWsuper. Just remember not to include identifying details about which story is yours!
Your essays are due Sunday at 10pm US Eastern Time. Remember to check the rules for formatting, including all those fiddly details like title page, font, and filename. Don’t get disqualified on a technicality! We know it seems really useless at times, but all those rules have a purpose, from helping get your file where it needs to be to making sure you’re read anonymously and fairly.
Email your questions to superchallenge@yeahwrite.me—we will not be reviewing other email addresses or social media for your questions over the weekend and we want to make sure you get the answers you need!
You’ll receive your feedback on Wednesday, November 27, and we’ll announce the winners on Friday, November 29 around noon US Eastern Time.
We hope you have as much fun with the prompts as we had picking them out. Good luck, and good writing!
*Look, y’all. You have 48 hours. Nobody’s expecting this to be publishable as-is, although quite a few if not all of you wrote submittable as-is stories last round, which would have been publishable with a couple gentle nudges from the editor of whatever publication you were trying to place them with. (So did many of the other writers, so congratulations again on making it to the top of the grading curve.) Expect to get feedback about stuff you missed. After all, the judges are required to make suggestions. It doesn’t mean you’re a terrible person or that the judges are. It means you had 48 hours and nobody gets it 100% in 48 hours. Not even gifted kids.
About the author:
Rowan submitted exactly one piece of microfiction to YeahWrite before being consumed by the editorial darkside. She spent some time working hard as our Submissions Editor before becoming YeahWrite’s Managing Editor in 2016. She was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2017 for her work on intersectional feminism, but she suggests you find and follow WOC instead. In real life she’s been at various times an attorney, aerialist, professional knitter, artist, graphic designer (yes, they’re different things), editor, secretary, tailor, and martial artist. It bothers her vaguely that the preceding list isn’t alphabetized, but the Oxford comma makes up for it. She lives in Portlandia with a menagerie which includes at least one other human. She tells lies at textwall and uncomfortable truths at CrossKnit.
